Human trafficking can feel distant—until you see the patterns, the people being targeted, and the routes traffickers use to move them.

In this episode of Beyond the Statistics, Ingrid Dutton sits down with Laura Parker, CEO and co-founder of The Exodus Road, to go inside the realities of human trafficking intervention, sex trafficking prevention, online grooming, and sextortion.

Laura shares how she and her husband went from teaching and pastoring to working alongside law enforcement, going undercover, and eventually building an international anti-trafficking organization.

What does human trafficking intervention actually look like? Laura explains how teams identify potential victims, gather evidence that law enforcement can use, navigate the risks posed by organized crime, and build trusted partnerships with local authorities. She also takes us behind the scenes of leading an anti-trafficking nonprofit, where the need is enormous and resources are never unlimited.

The conversation then turns to a growing threat facing children and teens in the United States: online sexual exploitation.

Laura explains how online grooming and sextortion happen, why young people are being targeted, and what parents and educators need to understand before a crisis occurs. She also introduces Influenced, The Exodus Road’s prevention education program designed to help families build practical digital safety skills.

This conversation goes beyond awareness to examine what intervention, prevention, and meaningful action against human trafficking can actually look like.

Topics include:
• Human trafficking and sex trafficking
• Anti-trafficking investigations and intervention
• Online grooming and child exploitation
• Sextortion of children and teens
• Digital safety for families
• Working with law enforcement
• Human trafficking prevention
• Survivor-informed anti-trafficking efforts
• The Exodus Road
• Influenced prevention education

Laura’s Links:

https://www.beyondthestatisticspodcast.com/guests/laura-parker/

https://lauraparker.org/

https://x.com/theexodusroad

https://www.instagram.com/iamlauraparker

https://www.youtube.com/theexodusroad%20

https://www.facebook.com/TheExodusRoad/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-parker-223677112/

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com
💜 Join the Beyond the Statistics Community: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast
📧 Email: BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast@gmail.com
📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today’s conversation meant something to you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. And if you’d like to continue the conversation beyond the episode, I’d love to have you join us in the Beyond the Statistics Community.

Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe

“Look at that little enemy of God.”

That single sentence captures the shame and fear Hollyanna grew up with as the fourth generation of her family inside a high-control religious group.

In this episode of Beyond the Statistics, Ingrid Dutton sits down with Hollyanna to talk about religious trauma, cult recovery, coercive control, and what happens when a system demands obedience at the expense of identity.

Hollyanna describes growing up in an environment where questioning could be dangerous, information was controlled, critics were discredited, and leaving could mean losing everyone you knew. She shares what happened when she ultimately walked away—including being cut off overnight and watching the group reshape the narrative about who she was.

The conversation also examines why people stay in high-control groups and why leaving is rarely as simple as deciding to walk away. Ingrid and Hollyanna explore the parallels between cult dynamics, spiritual abuse, coercive relationships, and other systems that use fear, isolation, shame, and identity suppression to maintain control.

Then they turn to what happens after leaving.

Hollyanna discusses the effects chronic stress and identity suppression can have on both the mind and body, her study of human behavior, body language, and movement, and the approach she developed called biocoding. She explains why recovery may require rebuilding trust not only in your own thoughts, but in your body.

For anyone navigating religious trauma, cult recovery, spiritual abuse, coercive control, shunning, or life after a high-control group, this conversation offers language for experiences that can be incredibly difficult to explain.

And perhaps one of the most important skills for the road ahead: learning to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Subscribe to Beyond the Statistics, share this episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help more people find these conversations.

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com

📧 Email: BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast@gmail.com

📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today's conversation meant something to you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe

What happens when a podcast conversation ends—but the questions don’t?

Beyond the Statistics explores domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, legal abuse, healing, survivor advocacy, and the systems that impact survivors. Week after week, those conversations lead to more questions, more ideas, and topics that deserve more than a single episode.

So I created a place to keep them going.

In this special bonus episode, I’m introducing the Beyond the Statistics Community, a new membership community on Patreon for survivors, supporters, advocates, professionals, and listeners who want to go deeper into the conversations we begin on the podcast.

I’ll walk you through the three membership levels—The Circle, The Conversation, and The Table—and some of what we’re building together, including:

• Beyond the Episode — live Q&As and conversations with previous podcast guests
• Beyond the Book — live discussions with authors
• Roundtables — conversations bringing multiple experts and perspectives together
• The Stacks — a library of recorded Community events
• The Community Room — a private monthly gathering centered on conversation, connection, privacy, and safety

The Community isn’t only for survivors. It’s also for the people who support them, professionals working in these fields, advocates working to change systems, and listeners who simply want to understand these issues better.

Beyond the Statistics isn’t changing. New podcast episodes will still be here every Wednesday.

We’re just making the table a little bigger.

Join the Beyond the Statistics Community:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/BeyondTheStatistics

The statistic is only the beginning. Behind every number is a story worth telling. Every story has a voice worth hearing. And every voice has the power to remind someone else: You are not alone. 💜

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com

📧 Email: BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast@gmail.com

📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today's conversation meant something to you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe